The present invention relates to toy vehicles and, more particularly, to a steering mechanism for toy vehicles in which steering is accomplished by the application of an electromagnetic force.
Conventional toy vehicles employ a direction-converting device that includes a steering plate or link mounted on front wheels. The front wheels are turned left or right by reversible operation of a steering motor for converting the direction of the front wheels between a straight or neutral direction and a right direction or a left direction. Use of an electric steering motor requires further provision of a reduction gear train and at least one clutch to prevent damage to the motor. In addition, the steering motor itself is undesirably expensive in spite of the excellent control performance.
Therefore, it would be desirable to create a steering mechanism for a toy vehicle that avoids the above-described disadvantages of conventional direction-converting devices. Specifically, it would be desirable to create a steering mechanism for a toy vehicle that steers the toy vehicle directly, without the provision of a motor or gears or clutches. Further, it would be desirable to construct a steering mechanism that simply utilizes the attractive and/or repulsive forces between a magnet and an electric coil to rotate and/or change the direction of steerable road wheel or wheels of the toy vehicle.